Earth (also known as Sol III, Earth being the 3rd planet from the sun, or Sol) was a level 5 planet (in the 21st century at least), and the Doctor's favourite. It was the twin planet of Mondas, located in the Sol system in Mutter's Spiral. Most of the Doctor's companions have been natives of this planet. It was the native planet of Humans, Silurians, Sea Devils, as well as other species.
Astronomical Data
Location
Earth was located in Sector 8023 of the Third Quadrant. (DW: Logopolis) It was the third planet in the Sol system, approximately 27,700 light-years from the centre of Mutter's Spiral. At one point the planet was transported to the Medusa Cascade by the Daleks, and was subsequently towed back to its normal orbit in the Sol system using the TARDIS (DW: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End). It was later shifted two light years from this position by the Time Lords and renamed Ravolox circa 2,000,000 CE (note that given that the Time Lords have been wiped out it is possible that this no longer occurs). (DW: The Mysterious Planet)
Moon(s)
For most of its history, Earth had one single moon, usually referred to simply as the Moon, a rogue planet which entered the Sol system and was captured in Earth's gravitational field millions of years ago. (DW: Doctor Who and the Silurians) By the time of the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire, four other moons had been added to the Terran system. (DW: The Long Game)
- Whether these additional moons were artificially constructed or natural ones moved into Earth orbit is not known.
Geology
Earth was rich in many valuable metals and elements. (DWN: Doctor Who and the Day of the Daleks) It was one of the few sources of quartz in the galaxy (DW: The Pirate Planet) and was also rich in silicon and carbon. (DW: Four to Doomsday)
Geography
Earth's surface had changed considerably over the course of its long history, owing to its high seismic activity. When native life first appeared on the planet, for example, what later became the middle of the Atlantic Ocean was a vast, rocky wasteland. (DW: City of Death) What follows is a general description of what came to be known as "Classic Earth". (DW: The End of the World)
Through most of its history, two-thirds of the Earth's surface was covered by water. Several large land-masses were in existence. Changes to the topography were relatively frequent, owing to erosion and seismic and volcanic activity. Two particularly cataclysmic events occurred when Atlantis, already ravaged first by the Dæmons and then Kronos, sank beneath the waves circa 2000 BCE (DW: The Underwater Menace, The Dæmons, The Time Monster) and when Krakatoa erupted in 1883, the latter event being witnessed by both the Third and Ninth Doctors. (DW: Inferno, Rose)
The actions of Humans, specifically their pollution, also had a major effect on the geography of the world. By the 26th century, the seas of Earth had been polluted, irradiated, set on fire and boiled off into a thick sludge. (NA: Ship of Fools) By the 52nd century, winters never occurred due to global warming. (WC: The Frozen) However, in the days of the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire, the Earth was far less polluted than in the twentieth century. (DW: The Daleks' Master Plan)
Over millions of years, continental drift caused the surface of Earth to change radically, creating such features as the Arctic Desert and the Los Angeles Crevasse. After the 57th Segment of Time and the events of the Ark the National Trust installed gravity satellites to hold back the expanding Sun, from a now uninhabited Earth. They also shifted the continents back to their early positions, a planetary style known as "Classic Earth", which took billions of years. It stayed like this until the planet's final destruction in the year 5.5/Apple/26. (DW: The End of the World)
Sapient Native Species
- See Earth sentients.
Several sapient and semi-sapient species evolved on Earth, though the most important and influential ones were the Humans and Earth Reptiles.
Flora and Fauna
In its long history, many species had evolved on Earth. By the 21st century, over 300 billion species of animals had already evolved and gone extinct. (NSA: The Last Dodo)
Historical
- Dozens of alien species and influences have affected life on Earth. Therefore, we have noted only the most significant and influential, or, in many cases, the earliest.
Early History
Before Life
Earth formed over 4.6 billion years ago around a Racnoss spacecraft which carried the last remainders of their ancient race. (DW: The Runaway Bride) At much the same time, the Sentience was also trapped in the forming Earth. (NA: Nightshade)
About 3 billion years ago, the consciousness of the Sou(ou)shi settled on Earth and went into dormancy. (MA: Venusian Lullaby)
The Creation of Life
Native life eventually developed due to the explosion of a Jagaroth spaceship. (DW: City of Death)
The age of Dinosaurs and Earth Reptiles
Various species of saurian dominated the planet until circa 65 million BCE, when a freighter from 2526 time-warped to this period and exploded in the upper atmosphere. The resulting clouds of dirt and smoke obscured the sun, lowering the temperature and causing mass extinctions. (DW: Earthshock)
An intelligent species of reptiles (whose name is unknown) flourished and then went extinct. (NA: All-Consuming Fire)
100,000 years later, Silurians and Sea Devils (later known collectively as Earth Reptiles) intelligent reptiles with biotechnology were also active. (DW: Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Sea Devils) They domesticated dinosaurs and regarded the small furry humanoid semi-intelligent primates around them as pests. (DWM: The Fall of the Silurians)
- The Doctor believed that the inaccurately named Silurians had lived not in the Silurian Age, but during the Eocene, a far more recent period, despite their use of dinosaurs.
The reign of the reptiles came to a final end when the rogue planet (later known as Earth's primary satellite, the Moon) entered Earth's orbit. The Earth Reptiles feared it and entered into suspended animation. (DW: Doctor Who and the Silurians)
Apes regarded by the reptiles as pests eventually evolved into the species known as Human, given a substantial jolt forward when the Fendahl Core arrived in Africa circa 12 million BCE. (DW: Image of the Fendahl)
The Human Age
Human civilization evolved quickly, assisted by the Dæmons, the various temporal fragments of Scaroth, and the predatory nature imparted to humans by the Fendahl.
This predatory and aggressive nature was evident in the many conflicts which humans fought amongst themselves throughout much of their early history, such as during the siege of Troy, the Dark Ages, or the American War of Independence. (DW: The Mark of the Rani) It was also exploited by the War Lords, who kidnapped human soldiers from various conflicts in Earth history for use in their war games. (DW: The War Games)
Earth had been visited by aliens many times throughout its history, but the launching of space probes by humans beginning in the late 20th century made such visits more frequent, as Homo sapiens began drawing attention to themselves. These visits also tended to be more openly hostile, and Earth was saved from conquest or outright annihilation often only through the intercession of the Doctor or the secret (prior to the 21st century) organization Torchwood. Earth also had many aliens land upon it, some hostile, some not. The Doctor and his companions as well as Torchwood and Sarah Jane and her friends dealt with these threats, helping the friendly aliens and defeating and most of the time killing the hostile ones. Such invasions also led to the formation of UNIT, whose functions in time culminated in the first conquest by Earth of an alien world, Mars, in 2086 (DW: Transit). Despite the sometimes overt nature of alien intervention on Earth, governments and military bodies successfully managed to keep many of these events either secret (DW: The Web of Fear), or active cover-ups were attempted, such as an attempt to dismiss the Battle of Canary Wharf (DW: Doomsday) as a terrorist event caused by the doping of Britain's water supply (TW: Everything Changes). The latter example occurred even after the Sycorax parked a giant spaceship above London (DW: The Christmas Invasion). Several other worldwide crises in the first decade of the 21st century, such as the sun going dim and the moon moving out of its orbit, were also the subject of subsequent cover-ups orchestrated by Sarah Jane Smith and her alien super-computer, Mr. Smith (SJA: Revenge of the Slitheen, The Lost Boy). However, several further events, most notably the forced relocation of Earth to another part of the universe and the subsequent Dalek invasion (DW: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End) served to finally convince the populace at large that we are not alone in the universe. However, the Dalek invasion seemed to have later been erased from history by a mysterious crack in time. (DW: Flesh and Stone)
From 2019 to at least 2059, Earth went through a period of chaos: climate change, ozone degradation, and the "oil apocalypse". Humanity almost faced extinction, but managed to not only survive but achieved major advances in space travel (DW: The Waters of Mars) and develop weather control technology (DW: The Moonbase). In 2058, Earth's first colony on Mars was built (DW: The Waters of Mars); humanity would then go on to create an early form of transmat (DW: The Seeds of Death) and lightspeed travel (DW: The Waters of Mars). From 2086 to 2088, aliens had begun settling on Earth (BBCR: Asylum), while Earth would win the genocidal Thousand Day War against Mars. (NA: Transit) In 2089, Earth had made its first insteller flight and by the year 2100, Earth had colonised nearby star systems.
In the 22nd century, Earth suffered the vast rise of large corporations which would occasionally wage active war against each other, energy crises, and the collapse of the tourist trade. In 2156, Earth Central declared bankruptcy and the corporations (under the Earth Alliance of Corporations) took control of the planet. Despite this, Earth's colonisation of the galaxy continued to advance. The Adjudicators were established to enforce Earth law on the colonies. (NA: Lucifer Rising)
The Daleks
The 22nd century Dalek invasion proved devastating to Earth. First, the Daleks wiped out fifteen colonies (NA: Lucifer Rising); then, they released a plague across the Earth. Over a six month period, Africa, Asia, and South America were almost wiped out; humanity was barely able to resist when the Daleks arrived, (DW: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) and New York City and many other cities were destroyed. (DW: The Chase) For ten years, the remaining inhabitants of earth were terrorized by the Dalek forces who enslaved many and turned others into Robomen, while the Daleks attempted to turn Earth into a mobile dreadnought. Only a handful of resistance groups existed.
Following the defeat of their grand scheme (DW: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) and their solar system blockade being shattered in the Battle of Cassius, the Daleks left Earth. The planet remained divided into feudal kingdoms for a time, as Earth refused assistance from the colonies (EDA: Legacy of the Daleks); large conglomerates, however, stepped in to rebuild the Terran Security Forces. (PDA: The Final Sanction) Thirty years after the invasion, the Earth Council existed as a fledgling government, but anti-alien organisations like Earth United began to attract many youths to their cause. (BFA: An Earthly Child)
The Human Empires
By the 23rd century, Earth had recovered and a major "break-out" of colonisation took place. (MA: The Romance of Crime) In time an Earth Empire emerged, which dominated most of Mutter's Spiral for over 500 years. This empire at times came into conflict with other space powers, particularly the Draconians (DW: Colony in Space), and often employed oppressive and disenfranchising policies on numerous alien races, most notably on Delta Magna and Solos. (DW: The Power of Kroll, The Mutants) Alongside Draconia, Earth would fight and win the Second Dalek War. Before the war, the Empire was overseen by a President (DW: Colony in Space), but from the late 26th century it was ruled by a Divine Empress. (MA: Cold Fusion)
In 2480 Earth was invaded by the Korven. However since the Korven's homeworld was colder than Earth, their performance in battle was affected and they were defeated. Tensions between Earth and the Korven lasted until at least 2618.(K9TV: The Korven)
Unrest among these races, instabilities in the Empire's political and economic structure, and ecological damage to Earth eventually led to the dissolution of the Empire (DW: The Mutants, MA: The Sorcerer's Apprentice), which in time gave way to the Galactic Federation, headquartered on Io. (NA: Legacy)
In the 29th century, Earth's environment was largely destroyed by solar flares, and humanity fled the planet on giant spaceships, returning when the solar flares stabilised. (DW: The Beast Below)
By 4000, Earth and its dominions were ruled by a Guardian of the Solar System, with the Space Security Service handling military intelligence. Following the death of the incumbent Guardian, Mavic Chen, (DW: The Daleks' Master Plan) however, his descendants would bring down the Galactic Federation's democracy (MA: The Crystal Bucephalus) and the Earth-ruled Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire took its place(DW: Planet of the Ood). The Empire would then be succeeded by the Earth Alliance (BFDE: Invasion of the Daleks). However, the brutal Dalek invasion of 4162 (BFDE: Dalek Empire I) would see Earth conquered and occupied by Daleks once again, and would result in the Great Catastrophe that devastated Earth and its colonies. (BFDE: Dalek Empire II)
Earth would recover yet again, forming advanced national alliances before a new Ice Age and World War VI struck it in the 51st century; however, it still triggered the Great Breakout of space colonisation and created the Time Agency. (DW: The Talons of Weng-Chiang, The Invisible Enemy)
Later Events
Earth in its later history was abandoned numerous times by its human inhabitants, first when solar flares bombarded the planet, leaving Earth uninhabited for 5,000 years. (DW: The Ark in Space) Earth's population was evacuated, with Nerva Beacon serving as an ark that could repopulate the planet; the rest of humanity carried on with another period of colonial expansion under GalSec. (DW: The Ark in Space, The Sontaran Experiment) While Earth was uninhabited and damaged, it was occupied by the Charrl, who renamed the world Antýkhon. Humans who had survived the flares, referred to as "Hairies", had mutated to adapt to the depleted atmosphere and soil caused by the Charrls' industrial activities. The Charrl occupation lasted some 3497 years. (NA: Birthright) Nerva Beacon's evacuees would return to Earth after 10,000 years had passed, and recolonised the planet. (DW: The Ark in Space)
Some time after, Earth was visited by the Usurians, who relocated the dying human population first to Mars and then Pluto. Generations later, humans had thrown off the yoke of Usurian exploitation, and returned to Earth. (DW: The Sun Makers)
By the year 200,000, Earth was at its height, covered with megacities, five moons and a population of 96 billion. It was the centre of the galactic domain of the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire that stretched across a million planets and species. The Empire had been secretly manipulated and its progress hindered (DW: The Long Game) by Dalek survivors of the Last Great Time War. Earth underwent a century of social collapse and pollution before a full-scale invasion commenced in 200,100, including a bombing campaign which disfigured the continents. The Dalek fleet was destroyed by Bad Wolf. It is not known whether this virtually omnipotent being reversed all the damage of the invasion, such as the disfiguring of the continents. (DW: The Parting of the Ways)
About 2,000,000, Earth was relocated two light-years from its proper position in the galaxy by the Time Lords to prevent the escape by aliens from Andromeda who had stolen information from the Matrix on Gallifrey. Most of the human race remaining on Earth were wiped out, and those that survived degenerated to a primitive, tribal culture. The planet came to be known as Ravolox, with Earth being completely forgotten. (DW: The Mysterious Planet) The inhabitants of Ravolox eventually came to know of the true nature and history of their planet, and to rebuild their civilization.
At some unknown point in the future, the planet may also for a time be known by the name Tellus and be owned by a mining company. (The Adventures of K9: K9 and the Missing Planet)
- Owing to the events described below, it is assumed that at some point Ravolox was returned to its original location and once again came to be known as Earth.
The Destruction of Earth
In the 57th segment of Time the last Humans left Earth because of the increasing danger that it would fall into the Sun, fleeing to planets such as Refusis II and Frontios. (DW: The Ark/Frontios) The now uninhabited Earth was preserved by the National Trust and over the following billions of years it was restored to a 'classic' Earth until it was finally destroyed by the expanding Sun in the year 5.5/Apple/26. (DW: The End of the World)
Characteristics
Political
Until well into the 31st century, Earth was divided into myriad nation-states of varying size, population, tactical strength, and socio-political, economic, and religious ideologies, all at any given time allied to or warring with each other. The first moves towards planetary union actually came in the form of military conquest and annexation of nations by leaders such as Cyrus the Great and Alexander the Great, with the Old Roman Empire, the Han Empire of China, and the Great Khanates of the Mongols being among the earliest superpowers. From the 17th to the 22nd centuries, much of the military and economic strength of Earth was controlled by the British Empire, and France, and, later, the United States of America, a former colonial possession of Britain's, as well as the Soviet Union, later reformed as the Russian Federation, and China.
The earliest peaceful attempt at unifying the planet under one governing body was the formation of the League of Nations at the close of the First World War. The 1930s saw the formation of LONGBOW, an organisation set up under the umbrella of the League to handle matters of international security, occasionally running into threats of an extraterrestrial nature. While never made public, this was the first acknowledgement by the world's leaders that humans were not alone in the universe, and their neighbors were not always friendly. LONGBOW ceased operations after both it and the League failed to prevent the outbreak of the Second World War, when Adolf Hitler sent German troops on an invasion of Poland.
The United Nations was formed at the end of the Second World War, hoping to succeed where its predecessor had failed in preventing global conflict. After numerous alien attacks, especially those by the Yeti (DW: The Web of Fear) and the Cybermen (DW: The Invasion), the UN at the suggestion of Colonel (later Brigadier) Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, drew up the charter for UNIT, whose duty was essentially the same as LONGBOW's had been.
The development of nuclear weapons and the Cold War increased international tensions in the late 20th century. At numerous times, nuclear war seemed imminent. This threat was somewhat alleviated when the great powers entrusted their nuclear launch codes to the United Kingdom for safe-keeping (DW: Robot), and again when half of the planet came under the government of the World Zone Authority in the early 21st century (DW: The Enemy of the World) However, the United States of America and Eurozone began showing hostilities to each other (EDA: Trading Futures) and by 2084, there were two vast power blocs in conflict and the threat of nuclear war. (DW: Warriors of the Deep)
These tensions ended due to the Martian assault of 2086, in which Paris was destroyed. A common, alien enemy united humans and planted the seeds for a united Earth. (NA: Transit) A brief relapse into warring feudal states followed the Dalek occupation before the Earth was once again united.(EDA: Legacy of the Daleks). It was also around this time that Earth formed the Alliance with Alpha Centauri and other nearby systems, its first formal alliance with alien species. (NA: Original Sin, MA: Lords of the Storm)
The united Earth government quickly became corrupt and on the payroll of powerful financial concerns like INITEC, the Galatron Mining Corporation, the AMORB Project, and especially IMC, looking the other way as these organizations victimised indigenous species and human colonists alike on the outer worlds. (DW: Vengeance on Varos, Colony in Space) In time the business policies of these corporations and the political and diplomatic policies of the Earth government became parallel and laid the foundations for the Earth Empire. Law and order was enforced by the Adjudicators. Although Earth was governed by a democratically elected President, civil liberties in the mid-third millennium were highly marginalized, and critics of the government were frequently sent to the Moon, which was converted from a civilian colony to a prison. (DW: Frontier in Space) In the last centuries of the third millennium, the Presidency was transformed into an Imperial monarchy, with the Holy King (or Queen) ruling Earth and its empire. The last Holy Monarch left control of the Earth to a ruling council upon her death, shortly before the Solos Incident. (NA: Original Sin, DW: The Mutants)
With the advent of the Second Ice Age and continuing unrest among the colonies, Earth's global government collapsed at the turn of the fourth millennium, and feudalism returned both on the planet and on many of its colonies. An aristocratic government remained in control of Earth when the Galactic Federation was formed in the later years of the millennium. (DW: The Curse of Peladon) This aristocracy eventually gave way to more democratic forms, but this new era of freedom was short-lived as the Solar System came under the sway of the Chen Dynasty after 4000. (DW: The Daleks' Master Plan, MA: The Crystal Bucephalus)
Earth became the centre of the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire, a vast and powerful tri-galactic power. It is known that Ood slavery was common and accepted during this period. (DW: Planet of the Ood) By 4162, however, it had been replaced with the Earth Alliance, a powerful Earth-centred bloc. This was the main power fighting another Dalek invasion of the galaxy (BFDE: Invasion of the Daleks), though Earth itself was conquered for much of the war (BFDE: Dalek War: Chapter One). While liberated, it became a victim of the Great Catastrophe.
After this, Earth once more broke up into rival nation states, with a Sixth World War looming by the year 5000 between the superpowers of the Icelandic Alliance and Supreme Alliance. This ended with the Supreme Alliance victorious and occupying Iceland. Other important nation states at the time included Australia, which itself was occupied, and the Phillipines, which liberated Iceland and defeated the Supreme Alliance. (DW: The Talons of Weng-Chiang) At the same time, possible due to this, Earth was responsible for the Great Breakout of space exploration and colonisation. (DW: The Invisible Enemy)
By the 100th century, the Earth was facing civil wars and by the 102nd century it was remade into the Junta. (PDA: Synthespians™)
Information on what forms of government existed on Earth during its later periods is scant, owing to the frequent evacuations and resettlements by humanity which occurred. During Earth's period as the planet Ravolox, the few surviving humans there appear to have lived in a tribal matriarchy somewhat similar to that of the ancient Celts. (DW: The Mysterious Planet)
Economy
Variations and hybrids of capitalism, communism, and socialism have been practiced by Earth Humans throughout their history. No information is currently available on what economic forms were utilized by the reptilian species which preceded humans. Towards the end of Earth's history, Trees which traced their ancestry to the tropical rain forests had acquired sizeable fortunes, mostly in real estate. (DW: The End of the World)
Most Earth currency was decimalised by the 20th century, with Britain's monetary system becoming decimalized in 1971. (DW: An Unearthly Child)
In the 20th and 21st centuries much of Earth's economy was dependant on oil, a non-renewable resource, much to the annoyance of the Doctor (DW: Terror of the Zygons).
Behind the scenes
- The first shot of the first scene of Rose (the first story following Doctor Who's extended hiatus) featured a dramatic zoom from Earth orbit into Rose Tyler's apartment. A number of Doctor Who stories have since opened with this same dramatic zoom, for example The Eleventh Hour
- Since The End of the World depicts Earth as orbiting its original Sun, presumably at some point between the year 2,000,000 and 5,000,000,000 the planet was relocated back to its original location and its name reverted from Ravolox back to Earth.
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